


though the truth may vary

by leftorbit (orphan_account)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Hatake Kakashi, KKOB Week 2020, KakaObi Week 2020, Kakashi POV, M/M, adhd obito, also just making up my own timeline as i go. its my right i think /j, anbu uchiha obito, bunch of time skips., but its only mentioned once, but not really., canon compliant to a point?, day 5: fate, obito adhd stimming king, some canon dialogue.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/leftorbit
Summary: In which Hatake Kakashi is a shinobi who's only ever had eyes for one, and Uchiha Obito sucks at not blowing his cover when faced with the past he's only trying to outrun to a certain point,
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Kudos: 106
Collections: KakaObi Week 2020





	though the truth may vary

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is my first posted naruto ao3 fic so! i hope you enjoy. i did a quick read and edit of this, but please let me know if you find any typos!

Kakashi kicks a rock down the street, frustrated. The academy had gone over things he already knew, leading him to spend the whole day frustrated at the lack of interest he had. _Obito_ of all people was the most active in class, scribbling notes the whole day, having a stack of paper by the time they left. Kakashi wrinkles his nose as he passes by people, on his way home. He sticks his hands in his pockets, twitching when something crinkles. Kakashi doesn’t _ever_ put anything in his pockets. He pulls out a crumpled piece of paper, unfolding it to find that it was _much_ more than just one piece of paper. Dozens of comments are scrawled across the paper, ranging from making fun of the lesson to 4 paragraphs about the things carved into the table from previous classes. Kakashi skims it, not reading it, until he sees his name.

_‘Kakashi, look at the back of this.’_

Kakashi flips it, and is greeted by a bunch of doodles of him scowling. A mouth is drawn over the mask, for some absurd reason, and there’s doodles of classmates fawning over him, of Gai challenging him. Kakashi would deny it if anyone noticed, but he smiles slightly, flipping through the other pages to find similar things. Hidden away on the very last page is a doodle of Obito, signed _‘by the future Hokage.’_

Kakashi keeps the papers, tucking them away into one of his books, and if anyone asks, he claims he never got them.

-

After Kakashi graduates, he doesn’t see anyone as much. There’s plenty of chance encounters, a village is only so big, but he doesn’t see Obito all that much. He tends to be busy with other things, but whenever he’s in the village, he arrives home to find his pockets full of paper, updating him on things that happened in the academy, always featuring little comics and things. He buys a binder, to properly store the papers in, unfolding them with care, smoothing out the folds. He’d never admit it, but they’re one of the few things he tends to look forward to.

He spends his nights rereading all of them, long after he’s made dinner, tracing the words and the doodles. They’re the only things that greet him when he gets home, and sometimes he prepares more food than he needs, just in case someone decides to drop by. They never do.

-

The Third Shinobi war rages on, and tension increases, and so does the need for soldiers. Kakashi’s put into a team of genin, demoted, and led by the Yellow Flash of the Leaf. He squashes down anything that rises up in him when he sees Obito’s bright smile.

He’s not his father, the mission comes first.

Rin’s there too, and they all work. . . as best as they can. Not everyone, actually, because Obito’s 12 without a Sharingan, Rin is a bit too optimistic, and Minato is doting. They argue a lot, Obito cutting through Kakashi with ease, and both Rin and Minato are not the best at diffusing it. The papers stop coming, and Kakashi pretends he doesn’t care. If he rereads the thick stack of papers he already has, then that’s his business.

He pushes their team hard, because if they want to do anything, they have to be better than they are. Their friendship suffers even more, especially when Kakashi can’t keep himself from throwing words back at Obito.

For teamwork, Rin and Obito have it down solid. Whenever they train with Minato sensei, if they’re paired up together, they’re unstoppable, weaving around each other with ease and always making their target. Kakashi tries his very best to ignore the fact he hates that he disrupts that ease.

Another thing he hates is that Obito expresses himself so freely, with their team. The Uchiha cries, often overemotional, and Kakashi never knows how to react. Obito cries of anger, of happiness, of everything in between, and Kakashi’s words burn beneath his skin, unsaid. His resolve breaks one night on a simple C-rank mission, switching watch in the dead of night. Obito yawns, taking Kakashi’s place, and Kakashi’s words slip out before he can stop himself. “Why do you cry so much?”

Kakashi winces, and Obito’s tired eyes narrow. “Already starting an argument?” Obito’s tone is tired, lacking its usual bite, and Kakashi sends his prayers for the luck of it.

“It’s a genuine question.” He says, a bit nicer, and Obito huffs.

“Fine, but we’re never talking about this again,” Obito’s glare is a warning, but his face softens, gaze distant. “I know that I’m. . . a little different. I feel too much sometimes, that's why I. . . do this, you know?” Obito shakes his hands, and Kakashi’s seen him do it before, talking to him and Rin, in passive moments or after they’d completed a mission.

“Oh.” Kakashi says, uneloquent as ever, and Obito turns away from him.

“Good night, Kakashi.” He says softly, and it reminds Kakashi of how they used to be, in the academy. Kakashi nods, even if Obito can’t see it, and settles down. Kakashi wakes up to a few sheets of paper, folded neatly on his chest, filled with doodles and stories, and when he tucks them gently into a pouch, watching Obito smile and laugh with Rin, he keeps his face neutral.

Team Minato functions well for the rest of that mission, and if anyone notices, no one says a word. It takes another two months and 7 missions before Kakashi corners Obito again, finally free of other people. “Hey?” Obito says, more a question than a greeting, lowering shuriken.

“Do you want to-” Come over? Have dinner? _Hang out?_ It’s all uncharted territory. He’d never, _ever_ asked for someone’s company. “Train together?”

Obito looks at him like he’s an idiot. “I’m already training, Bakashi. Your shuriken techniques don’t need work,” It’s the closest to a compliment that Kakashi will get out of Obito, but Obito’s face twists.

“Most of your form is perfect, anyways. What’s the point of _you_ training? You’ve never needed to.”

“Maybe I want to test my taijutsu.” Kakashi says, and when Obito opens his mouth, he quickly adds “Someone who _isn’t_ at an unholy level of taijutsu.”

“Fine.” Obito says, dropping the remaining shuriken onto the ground, and facing Kakashi. “I’ll train with you.”

Kakashi doesn’t smile in the moment, but when he goes home, he lets a big, dumb grin stay on his face until he leaves home the next morning, and then they’re back to the push and pull of their relationship.

-

Kakashi makes jonin relatively easy, praises being sung from Minato sensei, and their former classmates all congratulate him, although Obito stays at least arm’s length away and only offers a short, clipped _“Congratulations,”_ that feels more like an insult than what it should be. They get their first mission alone, Kakashi as team leader, with Minato busy, and Obito is more ornery than usual, but he gives a little bit of leeway, at least Kakashi thinks so, that things are going well again when he acknowledges Kakashi. Everything is fine up until Rin’s captured by the enemy.

Kakashi is level headed about it, but Obito looks like he’s about to explode, when Kakashi proposes that they finish the mission and rescue Rin, because _everything_ dictates that she won’t die. Not yet. “A shinobi must. . . sacrifice a comrade in order to secure the mission-”

He doesn’t get to finish, Obito punching him, “they were right!” He yells, and doesn’t stop. “I don’t like you!”

“I don’t care. I’m the captain, because I’m strong. You will obey me.” The words are heavy on Kakashi’s tongue.

“If you’re so strong, can’t you save your comrades?” Obito’s voice is rising, louder, and he sounds hysterical.

“Emotions can ruin the team, the mission.”

“Rin is always so worried about you, but you _don’t even care!"_

“It’s her duty as a medic-nin.”

Obito stares at him in shock. “Are you _serious?_ You believe that crap?”

Kakashi looks away. His father still rings clear in his mind, and he _won’t_ be swayed, he promises to himself, but it’s only the start of the many, _many_ promises he would break. “Yes.”

“Forget it. We’ve never been _anything._ I’m going to go rescue Rin.” Obito’s angry, and Kakashi doesn’t let himself think about how it feels to have that directed at him, again.

“The rules-”

“I thought your father was a hero. Sure, in the shinobi system, those who break the rules and regulations are regarded as scum, but. . .” Obito turns, and his gaze burns. “Those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum!”

Kakashi lets him walk away.

-

Too much happens, and it feels like this mission, this _day_ will never end. Kakashi loses his eye, Obito gets his Sharingan, the cave collapsesー _Obito’s under the boulder, oh god, Kakashi can’t move it_ ー he loses an eye, loses a comrade, his friend, gains a Sharingan, loses Obito. He gains bad memories, and a paralyzing fear of any weight on his chest. Minato Sensei doesn’t have anything good to say, when he meets up with his team, the third shinobi glaringly absent.

-

Kakashi’s fifteen, after Kannabi Bridge. His first birthday without Obito. He feels like he’s lost, without Obito in his life, but Rin is the same, and Minato isn’t but he’s there, too. The time Kakashi spends in the graveyard is doubled, and all he finds in the color orange is heartbreak, but it doesn’t keep him from buying orange things.

He didn’t know much about the Sharingan, and the Uchiha were less than thrilled when he returned with the dōjutsu, but he quickly realized that it did two things: the first, was drain his chakra very quickly, causing his chakra system to be like a pan with a hole in it, and the second was that the Sharingan recorded everything. He’d learned the hard way, leaving it uncovered at first, and thankfully, covering it solved both issues relatively easily, but he kept quiet about the nightmares, of losing his whole team, and especially the ones where he was the one being crushed.

He’d never liked it before, but physical affection and comfort was practically out the window now, because his breath came quick if there was weight on his right side, because Obito- Obito’s Sharingan came with such a steep price.

He didn’t get any peace, after that, between nightmares and missions, and then came the day he had to go through Obito’s things with the rest of Team Minato, being the only ones close enough to him to have a claim on any of it. His own apartment, now decorated with everything _Obito,_ and it makes him feel funny.

-

Not even a year later, Kakashi loses Rin, too. When he’s offered to join ANBU, he accepts.

-

He’s fresh out of ANBU training when temporarily assigned to Root. Danzō is less than thrilled at hearing the arrangement is temporary, but uses him well, sending him off on many grueling missions. It’s the last mission that brings Kakashi to himself, breaking him out of being Hound.

It’s a mission to Kiri, to meet up with a Root member that hadn’t sent a response in quite some time. To minimize the chance of him being recognized, his hair is dyed dark, and he’s sent off in the dead of night.

The mission isn’t easy, having to rely on genjutsu to get information, mostly, and the new Mizukage is paranoid of traitors, keeping a leash on everyone with information. It’s not classified as a long mission, but as the days stretch on, it certainly feels like it. He doesn’t find information on the Root member, but slipping into the Mizukage’s tower proves useful, a masked figure always hovering by the Mizukage’s side, silent. The mask isn’t a standard Kiri mask, which piques his interest. He redirects his mission, figuring that this person had a hand in Kiri’s politics, or was just an elite Kiri nin that slipped under Konoha’s radar.

He sends reports back on the man, assuming it’s a guard of the Mizukage, but after a few nights of shadowing within the tower, he’s caught. It’s after he’s slipped away, the Mizukage retiring for the night, heading back to his set up with another Root member, the girl hosting him in her tiny home, because orders are orders. He never expects the knock at the door to be him. Chidori comes easily, the lightning crackling in his hand, but he doesn’t need to. Gone is the Kiri mask, and in its place is a Root mask. It hits him- this is the agent he was sent to find the status of. He lets Chidori disperse, and the man is quiet, still.

“I’m here for a status report,” Kakashi says, shifting so he looked more relaxed than he was.

“Well I’m alive. Go back to Konoha.” He waves a bandaged arm, and Kakashi scowls beneath his mask.

“You’re aware of standard reports. They’re _detailed,_ ” Kakashi stresses, and the man has an air of indifference around him.

“Just tell them something along the lines of ‘Tobi is fulfilling the mission, Mizukage paying too much attention to correspondence,’” The member- _Tobi_ waves his hand, and Kakashi wonders if this is karma for how much of a little asshole he was, once upon a time.

He opens his mouth to say something, but Tobi turns away. “I must go now, it’s too risky for me to have even chanced to meet with you at this time. If you _must_ have more information for the old man, meet me outside the Mizukage’s quarters just before midday.”

He’s gone before Kakashi can even reply, Tobi whirling out of existence, and Kakashi finds the experience generally unpleasant, not unlike dealing with other Root members.

Kakashi still goes, however, slipping into the Mizukage’s tower, trying to put the map together in his head, comparing the floors he’d memorized the crude maps of. Tobi finds him, evidently, dragging him off into a side room, eyeing the Konoha mask as Kakashi takes the hood off his cloak.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” He hisses, and Kakashi shrugs.

“I can fight my way out, if it comes to that.”

“You’ve never seen Y- the _Mizukage_ with traitors, then.”

“What’s complicated your mission?” Kakashi asks, and Tobi tilts his head, his bandaged right arm reaching up to scratch at his Kiri mask.

“Did they not tell you what my mission was?”

“Is that important to this report?”

“Maybe.” It’s said in such an asshole tone that Kakashi thinks that if Danzō decides to have another freak out over ‘compromised loyalties’ he’ll gladly take this one out of the equation.

“What complicated the mission?”

“Ah, the Mizukage likes me a bit too much. Relies on me too much to stabilize the Sanbi, rarely lets me leave his sight, even if he’s aware that I can clearly handle myself.” Tobi waves, as if he hadn’t just revealed something big.

“So you’ve gained the Mizukage’s favor, and that’s why you can no longer send reports?”

“Is that not what I just said?”

“I’m asking for _clarification._ ”

“Well I-” Tobi cuts off immediately, and swipes at Kakashi.

“Wh-” He throws a punch at the other shinobi, but it passes through him, and Tobi’s fingers curl around the edge of his mask.

“Shut _up,_ unless you want to die, _Bakashi,_ ” Tobi swipes the mask off, and is quick with replacing it with another, fixing it just on Kakashi’s stunned face before pulling back, standing up straight. No matter how much he wishes, he can’t move his lips to make the words that lay just below the mask. He _needs_ to know-

“As the guard should know-”

The door to the room opens, pink eyes narrowing when they spy Kakashi, but softening when he spies Tobiー Obito?ー, Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage letting a smile slip onto his face.

“Oh, did something happen, Tobi?” The Mizukage says lightly, and Tobi shakes his head.

“No, just going over the rotation of guard and patrols. I thought it would work to confuse any potential defectors if we switch up the patrols. Do you need me, Yagura?” Tobi’s voice is easy, and Kakashi wants to hit himself for not recognizing it before. A million questions burn at him, and he realizes he can see the glint of Sharingan beneath the mask, if the light is just right.

“Yes, we have a meeting with the council,” The Mizukage says softly, giving a side glance to Kakashi.

“About Konoha-nin again, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we’ll be going. I’ll address the new rotation with you later, Captain.” Obito gives him a nod and leaves, the Mizukage taking his arm as they leave, and Kakashi wonders if he’ll ever breathe normally again, if Danzō knewー no, he _had_ to have knownー as he sent Kakashi to find the missing-nin. Obito is alive, Obito is _here._

-

Kakashi was half past sixteen when he found his heart still lived on, and it wasn’t until he was seventeen that he was able to corner Obito, to try and get the desperation out of his traitorous heart. Obito was too good at avoiding him, so he knew that Obito had chosen to let him in, that time, hiding behind a henge, disentangling himself from the Mizukage to find Kakashi in another quiet room, the Water daimyō conversing lively with the jinchuuriki.

“Obito-” Obito raises a hand, cutting off Kakashi’s desperate rant before it even begins, face bared for once, allowing Kakashi to see just a hint of what happened at Kannabi Bridge beneath the henge, the scooping scars across the right side of his face, the split lip, other eye hidden behind an eyepatch, definitely to cover the empty socket, where the other eye was in Kakashi’s head.

“I know what you’re going to say, Kakashi. I can’t go back to Konoha.”

“Why not?” His voice rises, begging, and Obito sighs. _Does he know that even with the wild hair, the scars, he’s still such a sight to behold?_

“I- I have a seal on me, I can’t get rid of it, I haven’t found a way yet, and I know. . . it’s just bad news.” Obito says finally, giving Kakashi an unreadable look. They’ve been dancing around each other for years, one dead, now alive, and Kakashi doesn’t know how much longer he can stand it. He doesn’t care about the seal, or maybe even Obito coming back to Konoha with him. He just wants Obito, no Anbu or Root, no clingy Mizukage keeping them from talking most days of the month.

Kakashi’s emotions bubble up, threatening to spill, all of Root’s failed attempts to seal them away being futile when his eyes land on Obito. “Obito, I don’t- I can’t let you go, not again. I l-”

“I’ve seen you at the grave, the memorial. Heard you. Please, Kakashi, just, keep that right now. There _will_ be a moment, I promise, just not yet. Okay?” Obito’s voice wavers slightly, although he keeps his face schooled, and it’s only proving the bridge that grew between them, because this Obito doesn’t quite match up with the one in his head but he knows they’re one in the same.

Obito reaches a hand out, slipping it into Kakashi’s, interlacing their fingers, fitting together perfectly, and Kakashi nods, his response breathless. “Okay.”

-

It’s not until they’re both nineteen, summer fading, that they’re together again, in Konoha. Obito knocks on his door in the dark, Kakashi reading a book, opening the door for the Uchiha to slip in in the dark, both of them buzzing with just being next to each other.

It takes time for Obito to divulge most of what had happened, in his absence. Ancestors, the seal, befriending the Mizukage, and of other things he can’t put words to. It’s only bared in the dark, when the thick curtains block out the moon that always seems to draw Obito’s gaze, where he can pretend his scars are invisible in the dark, no matter how much Kakashi’s heart swells at the sight of them, only there because of him. “I knew. . . it would always come back to you.” He confesses one night, hair cut short, sticking up in all sorts of directions, face buried in Kakashi’s left shoulder as Kakashi desperately pretends to read, eyes tracing over the words but not registering what they say.

“Back to me?”

“Always you. Academy, genin, Kannabi. Now,” Obito whispers, and Kakashi puts his book down, turning to look at Obito, who keeps his eyes closed, breath ghosting on Kakashi’s arm.

“I get it. Even when I got reassigned. . . always brought back to you,” Kakashi leans to press a kiss to Obito’s forehead, and both his eyes flutter open, mismatched Sharingan staring up at him.

“Though I’m not sure if I should feel lucky, considering you _did_ try to shave with a kunai, once.” Kakashi adds, smiling, and Obito splutters.

“Shut up! Bakashi! You kept all the notes I gave you!” Obito flicks Kakashi’s arm, and Kakashi can’t help but laugh.

They’re. . . so different now, but they’re the same. Two leaves on the same branch, and Kakashi is happy with it. More than happy with _him_ , and he doesn’t want to think about all the alternative endings that are brought up to his mind, the ones he knows Obito dwells on. They’re here, now.


End file.
